For the Eleventy First Time
by Beatrix Malfoy Delacour
Summary: A short essay on Bilbo Baggin’s birthday party scene in the beginning of the book. Explains the importance of the scene.


For the Eleventy-First Time Author: Beatrix Malfoy Delacour Email: Emeril12@aol.com Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of concepts from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Summary: A short essay on Bilbo Baggin's birthday party scene in the beginning of the book. Explains the importance of the scene. Author's Note: I wrote this a couple years ago I think, so it goes. :)  
  
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, presents an interesting concept in the opening chapter of the book. Bilbo's birthday party holds significance in the trilogy because it initiates the entire chain of events that occur throughout the series. If not for Bilbo's giving of the One Ring to his nephew, Frodo, at the party, the entire adventure would have been different in many aspects. But it was a very close call. Bilbo almost did not hand over the Ring. First off, one must look at the structure of Bilbo's Parting Speech. The hobbits at the party were expecting a long drawn-out speech, as was Bilbo's custom in the past. Instead, they receive a short, but involved speech, in which he completely disappears. When Bilbo says, "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve" (FOTR 29), the minds of the hobbits at the party drift away from the food and drink, to dwell for a moment upon the idea that Bilbo is not a normal hobbit. Bilbo further plants this thought in their brains by saying:  
  
"It is also, if I may be allowed to refer to ancient history,  
the anniversary of my arrival by barrel at Esgaroth on the Long  
Lake; though the fact that it was my birthday slipped my memory  
on that occasion. I was only fifty-one then, and birthdays did  
not seem so important. The banquet was very splendid, however,  
though I had a bad cold at the time, I remember, and could only  
say 'thag you very buch'. I now repeat it more correctly: Thank  
you very much for coming to my little party" (p 30).  
  
By this point in the speech, many of the hobbits greet his words with silence and raised eyebrows. They are reminded of a time sixty years earlier when a perfectly normal hobbit got mixed up in business with a wizard and a dozen dwarfs, and forever changed the history of Middle-earth. The oddness of his parting speech is unquestionably confirmed with his disappearance. The hobbits believe it to be a nasty joke, and call for more wine. To the reader, however, his speech greatly hints at the fact that something peculiar will happen soon. This peculiar event is Bilbo's handing of the Ring to Frodo, the first time in the history of the Ring that it's bearer had handed it over of his own free will. Secondly, the way in which Bilbo leaves the Ring with Gandalf hints at the oddity of the Ring itself, and what it had done to Bilbo's mind during his bearing of it. Bilbo tells Gandalf, "It is mine, I tell you. My own. My precious. Yes, my precious" (FOTR 33). Gandalf angrily replies by telling Bilbo:  
  
"It has been called that before, but not by you. You will be a  
fool if you do (keep the Ring), Bilbo. You make that clearer  
with every word you say. It has got far too much hold on you.  
Let it go! And then you can go yourself, and be free" (FOTR 33).  
  
These words show how much control the Ring has over Bilbo, as well as Gandalf's power to help Bilbo rid himself of the Ring's power. This ties into the significance of the eleventy-first birthday party because the entire point of the party was for Bilbo to give the Ring to Frodo and leave in secret for Rivendell. Lastly, Frodo's response to Bilbo's leaving and his inheriting of the Ring hints at the peculiarity of the whole situation. When he learns that Bilbo left him the Ring, he says, "The ring! Has he left me that? I wonder why. Still, it may be useful" (FOTR 36). Useful is an understatement in this case. Frodo's inheriting of the Ring allows the entire quest to destroy the Ring to begin. Without Bilbo's last birthday party (in which he was attending), the Ring might never have passed into the hands of Frodo, and Bilbo was certainly too old to take on the journey himself. All in all, these three reasons add to the importance of the eleventy-first birthday party of Bilbo Baggins. Without this important event, the tale of the Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King may never have been woven. 


End file.
